SEO Copywriting:The Definitive Guide

What Is SEO Copywriting?

SEO copywriting is the practice of producing keyword-optimized content that’s designed to appeal to human users and search engine algorithms.

In other words:

SEO copywriting is writing content that Google can understand. And, at the same time, that content needs to be the type of content that people want to read, link to and share.

So, if you write content ONLY for Google, your content can sound super robotic.

But if you write content ONLY for readers, your page probably won’t contain important keywords that people use.

It’s a tough balance.

But if you want to master SEO in 2023, you need to be good at both.

How SEO Copywriting Helped Backlinko Grow

Knowing SEO is great.

Knowing copywriting is great.

But when you can do BOTH?

You’ve got a powerful one-two punch.

In fact, SEO copywriting is one of the main reasons that Backlinko grew so quickly in a highly competitive niche.

For example, when Backlinko first launched, most SEO posts were SUPER technical, like this:

Sure, these posts were optimized to rank for specific keywords. But they weren’t written for living, breathing people.

Which is why I made sure to publish content that hooked readers right off the bat:

Explained things in plain English:

And made SEO more accessible to people that weren’t pro developers:

In other words: my copy was optimized for users and Google.

And in the rest of this guide I’ll show you exactly how to do it.

Starting with Chapter 2…

Structure Your Content The Right Way

Most people think SEO copywriting is all about putting words after words.

But in my experience, the STRUCTURE of your content is just as important as the writing itself.

And what better place to find proven content structures than Udemy?

(In case you’re not familiar with Udemy, it’s a platform with thousands of online courses)

Here’s how you can use Udemy to make your next piece of content 2-3x more compelling:

First, head over to Udemy and type in a keyword.

For example, let’s say you were writing a blog post about photography. You’d search for “photography”:

Udemy will show you all of their popular photography courses:

Next, pick a course with a lot of reviews.

Here’s one:

Once you pick a course, take a look at how many people have enrolled.

As you can see, over 149,314 people have enrolled in this photography course:

Do you see how huge this is?

You’re looking at content that 149,314 people have PAID to access.

That means you don’t need to rely on your Spidey sense to figure out what people want.

Thousands of people have already voted…with their wallets.

Now:

Once you’ve found a popular course, scroll down to the “Curriculum” section.

That’s where you’ll find the proven structure you can use for your next blog post:

Obviously, you don’t want to rip off the instructor’s course.

But you can use bits and pieces of the curriculum for your outline:

The APP Method

You just learned that Bucket Brigades can help improve your average time on page.

Now it’s to show you another technique that keeps Google users from clicking away:

The APP Method.

As you can see in the graphic, “APP” stands for: Agree, Promise, and Preview.

Let’s break each element down:

First, we have Agree.

This is an idea or concept that a Google searcher will agree with.

This shows them that you understand their problem.

Here’s an example:

Most people searching for my target keyword (“SEO tips”) are frustrated with SEO techniques that don’t work.

So by emphasizing that mine “actually” work, it shows that I feel their pain there.

Now that you’ve got them nodding their head in agreement, it’s time for the Promise.

The Promise is where you give them a peek into a better world.

Finally, hit them with The Preview.

Here’s where you tell your reader exactly what you have in store for them.

Use Title Tag Modifiers

If you want more traffic from long tail keywords, the solution is simple:

Title Tag Modifiers.

What are they?

Title Tag Modifiers are words that you add to your title tag that are designed to rank for long tail keywords.

Here’s a mini case study of this strategy in action:

A while back I published a guide called “Link Building: The Definitive Guide“.

And the title tag I used was simply the name of the guide:

At the time, I thought to myself:

“This title tag is short and sweet. It also includes my target keyword. This is a great title tag.”

But I was wrong.

I quickly realized that I could get MORE traffic to that page if I added a modifier.

So I added the keyword “SEO” to my title tag:

Thanks to that simple tweak, my page ranks for a handful of “bonus” keywords, like “link building SEO” (150 searches/month):

And “SEO link building” (400 searches/month):

How can you do the same thing?

First, find a page on your site that has a short title tag (between 25-40 characters).

Then add one or two of these modifiers from this list:

• “How to…”
• The current year
• Review
• Best
• Fast
• Checklist
• Guide
• Tips
• Easy
• Simple

You won’t be able to predict exactly what keywords these modifiers will rank for.

But you’ll get more search engine traffic than you would without them.

And that’s what really matters 🙂

Use SEO Copywriting to Get More Traffic to Ecommerce Product and Category Pages

With Amazon dominating Google’s first page, it’s not easy for smaller ecommerce sites to rank.

Despite that fact, I still see tiny ecommerce sites beat the odds.

Their secret?

They target long tail keywords that most of their competitors don’t know about.

Here’s how they do it (and how you can do the same thing):

First, search for a product that you sell on Amazon.

For example, let’s say you run an ecommerce site that sells dog food.

You’d search for “dog food” in Amazon:

But don’t hit enter!

If you wait a second, Amazon will show you long tail keywords related to that keyword (just like Google Suggest):

Grab one of those suggestions and pop it into Google.

Check to see if the first page for the long tail keyword is less competitive than the one you’re currently targeting.

Usually, it will be:

(As you can see above, the Semrush Keyword Difficulty of the top 10 results for “dog food” is 100% higher than the similar, long tail keyword.)

And because Amazon Suggest keywords are laser-targeted, they tend to convert well too.

Finally, sprinkle those keywords into your product and category page copy (and in your title and description tags):

Use Emotion In Your Titles (But Not Too Much)

Industry studies have found that emotional headlines=higher CTR.

The thing is, most of these studies look at click through rate on social media. This data may not apply to user behavior on Google.

In fact, our recent analysis of 5M Google search results found that emotionally-charged title tags can help CTR.

But only to a point. Once the title veers into clickbait territory, CTR plummets.

The bottom line here is that you want your title tags and descriptions to have some emotional sentiment (positive or negative both work).

But if you go overboard, Google searchers are going to skip right over your site in the SERPs.

Test Out Questions in Your Title Tags

That same study I just mentioned found that question-based title tags have a 14% higher CTR vs. titles without a question.

Now: it obviously doesn’t make sense to use a question in every single title tag.

But it’s worth testing out.

For example, if you search for “social media marketing”, the #1 result uses a question in their title.

Why Creating Your Own Keywords Helps With SEO

If you search for your brand in Google, you probably rank #1.

You may not have thought about it, but your brand is a keyword.

(A keyword that you automatically rank #1 for.)

But why stop there?

You can generate boatloads of extra organic traffic when you also brand your techniques and strategies.

For example:

You’ve probably heard about The Skyscraper Technique, my 3-step formula for getting more organic traffic to your site.

Because I branded my strategy “The Skyscraper Technique”, I now have a pipeline of extra visitors coming to my site every day.

In fact, according to Google Search Console, the keyword “Skyscraper Technique” (and close variations of that term) get 2,030 searches per month:

And because I rank #1 for that keyword (and appear in the answer box), I get the lion’s share of those 2,030 clicks.

Now:

The Skyscraper Technique is my most successful created keyword.

But it’s not the only one.

For example, take “The Content Upgrade”.

The Content Upgrade quickly went from a little-known technique that I used to get more email subscribers to something that blogs starting writing about left and right.

But traffic isn’t the only way that creating your own keywords can improve your SEO.

Creating keywords can also lead to more backlinks.

That’s because people will link to you whenever they mention your concept.

For example, whenever a blogger writes about The Skyscraper Technique, they usually link back to me:

Spread The Word

You can’t just name your strategy and call it a day.

In fact, I’ve seen lots of people create their own strategies. And they rarely get off the ground.

Sometimes it’s because their strategy wasn’t that original in the first place. But more times than not, they didn’t hustle to get the word out.

And if you’re serious about turning your idea into a keyword that people search for, you need to promote the heck out of it.

For example, when I first developed The Skyscraper Technique, I went all out to spread the word.

I published a case study that outlined the steps:

I mentioned The Skyscraper Technique in guest posts:

I went on podcasts to talk about how it worked:

I even made an entire YouTube video about that strategy.

Then, as people started to use The Skyscraper Technique to get more traffic, I featured their stories on the Backlinko blog.

Which eventually helped The Skyscraper Technique become a thing.

Use Short URLs That Contain a Keyword That You Want to Rank For

Can short URLs really help your site rank higher in Google?

Our search engine ranking factors study found a significant correlation between short URLs and higher Google rankings.

And URLs that contain a keyword get more clicks.

The bottom line here is that you want to write your URLs to be short and keyword-rich.

For example, the URL for this list of SEO tools is just: /seo-tools.

And the URL for this guide to email marketing is my keyword with “guide” added to the end:

Note: Are your URLs already long? I don’t recommend going back and changing them. It can cause serious technical SEO issues. Just apply this rule to future pages that you publish.

Try Click to Tweet Buttons

Sure, social sharing buttons can help you get more shares.

But they’re usually not enough.

And if you want to get more shares from every post that you publish, I recommend trying Click To Tweet Buttons.

For example, a while back I published a post called: “List Building Strategies to Help Build Your Email List”.

To maximize the number of shares this post got, I included a “click to tweet” button underneath each item on the list:

To date, my post has over 6700 social shares.

And a good chunk of those 6728 shares came from my “click to tweet” buttons:

Here’s how you can do the same thing:

First, find a super actionable tip or strategy from your post.

Next, head over to ClickToTweet.com. Click on “basic link”:

Turn your actionable tip into a tweet:

Then, click on “Generate new link”.

And pop the link into your post.

That’s all there is to it.